What to Teach to ESL Students Under 5?

Teaching English as a second language can be one of the most rewarding, yet difficult jobs you will ever have. This is especially the case when teaching the under 5's. This age group can be great fun, but they also present their own unique set of challenges.

The most important thing to bear in mind when teaching the under 5's is to make it fun. If you can achieve this you will have happier and more attentive students. Making it fun achieves two things. One, it means the students enjoy the class and feel comfortable enough to participate in activities. Secondly, by making it enjoyable you are laying the groundwork for their success and desire to study and learn English. If at a young age they dislike English classes, then in all likelihood this will continue, as they grow older, meaning a less dedicated student.

It is easy to say make it fun, but how do you do this? Think about what young children like to do. Children (generally) love to draw, color, sing, dance, and play games, most of all they want to be entertained. To keep a young child's attention in a classroom setting you have to make them enjoy it and laugh.

Acting like a cartoon character, with over exaggerated gestures and physical humor is a great way to do this. Sing songs and recite nursery rhymes regularly and get them to join in as they get more confidence and become more familiar with them. Interactive drawing is another great way to teach. By interactive drawing I mean activities like drawing a circle and directing students to draw on facial features such as eyes, ears, mouth etc. Another example is to give them a page of shapes and ask them to color specific shapes certain colors. This activity not only teaches them shapes but colors too. As they become more advanced so the complexity of these activities can progress too.

Change activities regularly in each class to keep the child's interest, but try and keep a standardized routine, for example each class starts with greetings, moves into rhymes, then songs etc. This allows the student to the plan for each class making them more comfortable and decreasing the need for lengthy explanations of what is to be done.

It is important to know your students limitations. When you think of three, four and five year old's in your own native country you realize they are in the infancy of language acquisition and development. This creates a great opportunity for teachers as students will learn words and phrases retaining them very quickly, however they will have boundaries to their learning. Do not attempt to teach any thing too complex. As a rule of thumb if they do not have knowledge of certain rules and concepts in their own native language it is unlikely they will grasp it in a tongue they do not use or hear regularly. At this age their reading and writing skills will also be limited so the use of pictorial or visual teaching aids is vital to enable effective teaching.

Teaching ESL to under 5's can be challenging, however after teaching this age group you will find out what works for your classes. If you follow the simple rules of being entertaining and making it fun you will be sure to succeed.